BXBX NOVEL Ch135.2 - Raising a Big Cat in the Apocalypse (14.2)
Chapter Ch135.2 - Raising a Big Cat in the Apocalypse (14.2)
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The starting point of that dream was when the new humans came to find him, wanting to make him their leader as long as he helped them take down an old human settlement located 200 kilometers away.
Only the heavens knew how turbulent the dark waves and clouds in Gu Xinzhi’s mind were when he saw the faces of those new humans who’d come to negotiate.
Especially a few of the faces amongst them; he’d seen them before in his dream.
They’d been cheering as they surrounded him, because they’d succeeded in eliminating all the team members under Ding Qiuyun’s command.
When he looked at them, Gu Xinzhi thought of Ding Qiuyun, who’d fallen into a pool of blood and died with everlasting regret countless times.
At the time, Gu Xinzhi had looked over everyone’s faces, lit up a cigarette, then looked at their leader and asked, “Why did you guys come looking for me?”
That person had smiled slightly, “We want to give you the authority to protect someone.”
Gu Xinzhi: “Hm?”
“As far as I know, that person is your old comrade, and one of the most troublesome of the old humans. Sooner or later, we will try to eliminate him. That’s why we thought of inviting you out of the mountain, since only you can protect him.”
Gu Xinzhi slowly blew out a puff of smoke, “Who is it.”
Their leader replied, “Ding Qiuyun.”
Gu Xinzhi was still smoking when he stood up and walked to the door, closing the half-open door to the shopping mall.
On that day, the door to the shopping mall never opened again, and no one came out from there. There was only gurgling blood that flowed out along the crack of the door, attracting some wild animals that came over to drink from it.
After taking care of that group of people, Gu Xinzhi, who still had blood on his hands, sat there among the dead, smoking one cigarette after another. He let the light and shadow outside the window shift, changing from white to black.
This was really like his dream, he thought to himself.
He then thought, if this repeated nightmare was a kind of foreshadowing in the dark, then it would be fine if he casually strangled any hint of it in the cradle.
It was because of this that he’d offended the new human camp.
They’d set up an ambush in order to kill Gu Xinzhi. Nobody had expected to have Ding Qiuyun and the others encounter this unfortunate situation.
Time shifted back to the interior of the rumbling truck.
Ding Qiuyun looked sideways at Gu Xinzhi, “So? Did you agree?”
Gu Xinzhi looked at his own hands and said calmly, “I drove them away.”
Ding Qiuyun made an ‘oh’ sound, letting it drag out.
Then, he closed his eyes and stopped speaking.
This attitude from Ding Qiuyun made Yan Lanlan’s internal score of Gu Xinzhi plummet down in a straight line. She also didn’t really want to talk to Gu Xinzhi anymore and knocked on the roof, “Big Sun, pick a steady road and drive slowly. Captain Ding’s injured.”
The interior of the car fell into an awkward silence. Only Chi Xiaochi was very calm as he went to find a safe and steady resting place for himself.
... On his Boss’s belly.
He reached out and pressed on his wound, frowning slightly.
061 no longer had that cold tone and frigid aura he’d had back in the shopping mall. He scolded, “That was careless.”
Chi Xiaochi felt no shame as he acted coquettishly, “It hurts.”
The tip of 061’s heart ached for him, and he took out a pain shielding card and used it on him.
Chi Xiaochi chuckled delightedly and flipped over, hugging Boss’s tail as he whispered quietly to 061, “Liu-laoshi, do you think that Boss is angry with me? It’s been ignoring me ever since we got in the car, and it ignores me even when I pet it.”
061 couldn’t do anything to him. He just sighed.
“It isn’t angry.” 061’s voice was particularly helpless and gentle, “It’s just afraid of getting you dirty.”
Chi Xiaochi curled up. He thought to himself, he wouldn’t disdain it for that.
The dull pain in his bones disappeared. He relaxed easily and fell asleep.
After Gu Xinzhi sensed that the breath of the man beside him had steadied out with sleep, he tentatively stretched out his hand, wanting to touch the man’s forehead, but the black leopard that was acting as Ding Qiuyun’s pillow turned its head over.
It didn’t issue a low threatening roar; it just looked quietly at Gu Xinzhi, its eyes cold like it was looking at a piece of meat.
Gu Xinzhi retracted his hand and sneered silently, thinking that this must be a dream.
After all, this black leopard’s existence was too magical.
As for the hateful gaze that Ding Qiuyun had shot him, it was probably that he’d dreamed too much and confused the plot.
After rushing back to the settlement overnight, Yan Lanlan didn’t even try to wake Chi Xiaochi up. She organized a young man from their team to take Chi Xiaochi back to his dormitory to continue resting, and instructed them to not tell his parents about his injury for the time being.
Only after she was finished with making clear arrangements for the captain did Yan Lanlan turn her gaze towards Gu Xinzhi.
As was customary, Yan Lanlan opened her mouth and asked, “What can you do?”
Even before Gu Xinzhi could answer, Sun Yan had come over to pull him away. He explained it as pulling away an old comrade in arms to eat together, but he secretly winked at Yan Lanlan and took the initiative to lead Gu Xinzhi to the non-core areas of the settlement.
They may have been comrades in arms, but Sun Yan and Gu Xinzhi weren’t very familiar with each other.
Due to the hostility that Ding Qiuyun had expressed towards him, even Sun Yan didn’t dare to fully trust Gu Xinzhi. He could only give him the cold treatment and observe him for a period of time.
Gu Xinzhi had no objection to this. Not only did he listen to the arrangements, he also curiously looked around, to and fro.
This was the first time he’d seen a new scene like this in his dream. It was completely different from reality.
Chi Xiaochi didn’t wake up at all on the way home, but he was woken up in the middle of the night by a warm licking and rubbing sensation at the front of his chest.
He opened his eyes and found that Boss had somehow slipped into the bedroom again.
It had already cleaned itself up. Its fur was bright and shiny, and its whiskers were clean. The blood and mud on its pads had been carefully washed away.
It had pushed aside the front of his clothing and was gently licking at the bruises and swelling caused by the bone injury with its tongue, its movements so gentle and tender that it made his heart soft.
Chi Xiaochi was really tickled by its movements; he tilted his body away and reached out to wrap an arm around its head, speaking in a quiet voice, “That won’t make it get better any faster.”
Boss let out a soft cry, its voice sounding a little aggrieved.
Chi Xiaochi coaxed it, “Be good, don’t mother me like this.”
Boss raised up its watery eyes. Its gaze seemed to be begging for permission.
Chi Xiaochi thought about it briefly. Perhaps, this fellow had come over to try and please him because it felt that its performance had been too fierce today and was afraid that he would be scared of it.
With that thought in mind, he lifted up the leopard’s face and gave it a big kiss on the cheek, treating it the same way he used to treat Dog Meat. He smiled heartily at it. “I’m not afraid. Go, you’ve been running all day, go to bed early.”
The leopard put both paws by the bed and watched him, its eyes like two deep, bright gems, sparkling with a warm luster.
Chi Xiaochi asked, “Don’t you want to go to sleep?”
The leopard placed its head gently on his stomach.
Chi Xiaochi laughed.
He stroked the sleek and glossy fur, pulling out another dream control card from the storehouse and placing it into the slot.
He’d have Gu Xinzhi dream again so that he would understand what reality was.
He set the usage time and had Gu Xinzhi dream at five o’clock in the morning. Then, he couldn’t help himself and continued caressing the leopard’s silky soft fur and soon fell asleep again.
While he was asleep, the black leopard carefully jumped up onto the bed.
It looked at him gently in the dark for a long time.
The leopard’s ears were extremely sensitive, so Chi Xiaochi’s steady and powerful heartbeat was as loud as a bell to it. It made it feel at ease, but it also gave it a sense of lingering fear.
It raised up its paw and used the tip of it to trace gently over the outline of his nose and mouth.
After doing so repeatedly, it finally leaned itself against Chi Xiaochi’s shoulder and fell asleep.
xiin: i don’t know about you guys, but i’m slightly confused about how a huge leopard paw can trace the outline of anything on a face...???
also, we’ve had a slight change in staff! serefina will no longer be editing Trash due to RL busy-ness, and GlitteryPanda has taken a short break (she’ll be back!)... so juu & apricot will be joining the team~
Juurensha: Excited to be joining the project! And awwwwww so cute.
apricot: hello! pleased to meet you all